Down Pulled From Dutch Festival Due to Phil Anselmo’s Dimebash Fiasco

In this day and age where it’s much harder for celebrities to get away with heinous shit than it used to be, there’s a pattern to what happens after a famous person says or does something disgusting. First, it’s the public outrage. Then, there’s the consideration of said outrage, and the public apologies (or excuses) by the celebrity in question. And then, there’s the slow parade of sponsors stepping away from them one after another.

Well, that last step had begun for Pantera/Down/Superjoint frontman Phil Anselmo, who ended the most recent Dimebash by throwing a Nazi salute and yelling, “WHITE POWER!” into the crowd. Now that we’ve seen the outrage and heard the apologies, we’re watching the backers pull out, as Metal Hammer recently announced that Dutch festival FortaRock has pulled Down from their line-up.

FortaRock posted the following to their Facebook:

The translation’s a little rough, but its message is clear — FortaRock doesn’t want a racist band on their 2016 festival, so Down aren’t welcome.

While some might respond with the usual, “But–but–“, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Of course festival promoters in a genre of music known for its dodgy political beliefs don’t want to back a band with a member known for his fucked-up political behavior. What would be the upside of keeping Down on the bill? The crowd thinks you’re a racist festival? The audience pelts them with bottles and shit? Or worse, a bunch of white power supporters show up?

And it’s only going to get worse from here. FortaRock? Hell, earlier this week The PRP reported that there’s a petition to get Down pulled from the Download Festival. Down and Superjoint are going to have to live with this for a while.